Jedi Knight: Shadowalker
by sagezuthet
Summary: An intrusion into Luke Skywalker's past reveals a deadly new enemy.


STAR WARS  
  
JEDI KNIGHT: Shadowalker  
  
-prologue-  
  
It was beyond disturbing.  
  
The void stabbed at his gut, and he reeled, crashing his right hand unto the marble floor of the meditation chamber in an attempt to cushion his fall. It kicked him some more as the void grew into a black hole, slowly draining him of all life and energy until all that was left of him to do was collapse. Through the transparisteel windows, Mara Jade Skywalker saw her husband fade just as she felt him slipping away in the Force. She ran, closing the distance between them with both her quick strides and intermittent Force pulses to keep him conscious, but it was no use. By the time she entered the chamber, Luke was already unconscious, but at least she could still feel him throbbing and struggling in the Force, hanging unto a dimming flicker in the mystical web that bound all living things. Grabbing the comm-unit at the right-hand wall, Mara blared an order in an urgency that would rock the entire Jedi Council, "send a medical droid here, now!"  
  
Luke Skywalker was strong in the Force, but not that strong.  
  
-i-  
  
A snowstorm had just ended when Kyle Katarn began his survey of Hoth in an X-wing class starfighter. Though he hated riding in these things with their cramped cockpits and absence of in-flight entertainment, he knew that he didn't have much of a choice. Anyway, he only needed to make a quick inspection of the former rebel base as a favor for an old friend.  
  
"Arsix, how far are we from the base?" He spoke to his navigator droid which responded with a cacophony of beeps and whistles.  
  
Contact time is 1 minute and 15 seconds, it replied. Then there was another series of random sounds.  
  
"What I'm expecting to find? Not much more than what we saw in Tatooine I guess." And then he thought of the irony in what he said and scratched his beard. "Nothing at all."  
  
-ii-  
  
The howler shuddered at the sight of a cloaked stranger hovering over the still, black current of the main swamp delta. It watched intently, and observed, figuring out if it were a friend or a threat.  
  
From the corner of his one eye, the stranger saw how all life was centered upon him, each one dissecting his presence and studying his intent. It felt good, the Force ebbed and flowed through the myriad creatures that populated the swamp, and all those energy would soon be his. He continued to hover until he reached a small, makeshift home of clay and ash that once housed the most respected creature in this murky hamlet, and as a matter of fact, the most respected creature in the entire galaxy at one time. And he began to descend. His pearlescent black boots brushed against the damp soil on which we would eventually kneel on. But first, there was one thing he had to do. He closed his eyes to call on a hidden power.  
  
Instantly, a gentle breeze flowed through the swamp, touching every creature that could see, smell, taste or feel. Soon, all they could do was fear and run away. The stranger raised his arms to his sides and spread open his palms to extend his presence. He could now hear the animals panic, scamper and collide into one other, and with a single thought he opened his eyes.  
  
As if it were some divine asymmetry, every single creature closed its eyes and shut off its senses, as the stranger amplified his own. There was no sound now and everything was still, save that for the stranger's heart that beat with excitement.  
  
-iii-  
  
About three days ago, Kyle was tasked to investigate Tatooine, particularly the site of the moisture farms formerly owned by Owen and Beru Lars, the adoptive parents of Luke Skywalker. His orders from the Council -- orders given by Luke himself -- were strictly confidential inasmuch as they were blatantly vague: gauge the presence of the Force. It was an odd order, but if Luke had indeed given it, then there is some, if not much, urgency in the matter. What he discovered upon reaching the site however, unnerved him. Even as a Jedi Master himself of the likes and levels of Kyp Durron and Corran Horn, he was totally inexperienced in what he was about to... feel.  
  
Circling the former Lars residence in an X-wing, Kyle Katarn felt absolutely nothing. With the house as the center, the immediate 2-mile radius was completely devoid of the Force. He wished that Master Yoda would be around to explain this to him for no rock, shrub or sandworm registered howsoever in the Force. But it is actually even far worse than he could already anticipate, as he would soon discover. Stretching out his senses and feelings, he realized that he actually cannot. If the Force were a web of interconnected life energies which a Jedi could tap into and utilize, then that web was apparently absent here. Something or someone had either siphoned all the energies off this place, like the Tavion's Force-thieves he fought off before, or had severed off its link from the Force, as the Force itself demonstrated with the Yuuzhan Vong. Yet somehow, it felt as if it were both. The former residence of Owen and Beru Lars was now a blackhole in the Force, and a void from which Kyle Katarn immediately steered away from as he felt his consciousness -- and the Force -- escape him with every moment he remained. That was the tale of the nothingness he found in the Tatooine moisture farms, the place where his age's most powerful Jedi grew up and first learned of the living Force.  
  
Focusing his attention on the here and now, he considered giving his navigator a little caveat. "We will make this pass quick, Arsix." And the droid acquiesced with a single whistle.  
  
Upon entering a 2-mile radius from the former rebel base, Katarn could already feel the tug of the void, and it intensified as he approached the center. Grasping on to his own awareness of the Force, he continued on and increased the speed of his X-wing in order to survey the emptiness as hastily a possible; though the emptiness itself was evidence enough for his purpose. And he dragged on through the epicenter, keeping his own hold of the Force to remain conscious and soon enough, he was on the other side of the 4 mile stretch of null Force. He cocked his X-wing upward and towards the vastness of space, and allowed the Force to sink back in through his fingers and toes. Whispering a silent order to Arsis to engage the auto-pilot and head to a course back for the Gavin system, Kyle closed his eyes to meditate and celebrate his temporary estrangement from and reentrance into the Force. It was a welcome respite, and one he enjoyed before the crackle and hiss of an interstellar communicator come to life.  
  
"We thought we lost you back there."  
  
"No, Luke, you didn't. I'm alive and well." Then he caught wind of the heavy tone of recovery that the Jedi Master carried in his voice. "It's good to hear from you again as well."  
  
"Thank you. But I didn't exactly call to exchange pleasantries." But even with his current plight, Luke carried his casual tone that held words of both comfort and command.  
  
Though Kyle was impressed, he chose to keep it to himself. "So I suppose I'm not just about ready to head back to Mon Calamari." And he switched off the autopilot back to the manual controls.  
  
"I apologize, but I think I know where the next void will most likely be."  
  
"Is this New Republic intelligence?"  
  
"The New Republic doesn't even know about this yet." Luke felt that the knowledge they themselves had was too little to present a compelling case for the New Republic. Most of the bureaucrats didn't believe in the significance of the Force. "And call it a hunch."  
  
"Of course. The strongest hunch in the galaxy. So where will your 'hunch' be leading me off to?"  
  
"The Dagobah system." Luke paused for a while, phrasing his next words properly. "Particularly where I trained with Master Yoda. The Force will guide you to the exact location."  
  
"The Force... so that means the place hasn't been siphoned yet."  
  
"No. Not yet."  
  
"So you want me to beat whatever or whoever to it."  
  
"Something like that, Kyle."  
  
"Of course." Then he paused to think of some way to tease or patronize Luke. Knowing the Jedi Master, Kyle supposed that he would take it both ways. "I never knew you had such a deep connection to those places. I mean, they have been instrumental in you being who you are now, but I never realized your ties to the past are that strong." Katarn meant that as some joke.  
  
But Luke received it as a precious insight from a fellow Jedi. "And neither have I. Perhaps Dagobah yes, but not Tatooine or Hoth."  
  
"And all this is killing you." Kyle actually snickered this time. "Don't worry, Luke. I'll make sure nothing happens to Dagobah."  
  
"Thank you, Kyle." Katarn felt Luke's smile. "And may the Force by with you."  
  
"You too, Luke. You too." And with that the communication ended. Kyle keyed in the coordinates to Dagobah and ordered Arsix to begin the sequence for the jump to lightspeed.  
  
-iv-  
  
The streaks reverted back to stars as the X-wing came out of lightspeed and it continued to cruise at sub-light.  
  
Kyle marveled at the blueness and simplicity of Dagobah. It is truly one of the galaxy's last untouched gems, as more and more planets aspire to be the next Coruscant, after the galaxy's former core planet fell to the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong. And Dagobah is perhaps the richest in the Force. Teeming with innocent and unspoiled life, it was truly a place where a Jedi could find oneself -- in both the light and dark sides of the Force.  
  
"Arsix, prepare us for entry." The navdroid whirred and run through a series of calculations that would prepare the starfighter's shields from the buffeting winds that would friction and fracture the ship as it entered the atmosphere -- a harsh lesson that Luke himself learned in his first entry into the planet nearly 30 years ago.  
  
It was just then that it began. Seconds before breaking into the carbon dioxide rich atmosphere, Kyle sensed the Force itself shudder. "No." He sensed that whatever his quarry is, it has already begun its work. "Arsix, just give me maximum shields. Turn off all the nav-sensors and run me the auxiliary if necessary. I'm taking us in really fast." All power has been directed to the main thrusters and shields, and with all the navigation and sensoring equipment shut off, Kyle tapped into the Force and let it guide him towards the source of the disruption. In his mind's eye, he could see his target: a man almost two meters in height and cloaked in green. He put more power to the thrusters.  
  
The atmosphere burned at the X-wing's shields but they held up even with the immense wind pressure rocking the ship's foils. Soon, he was gliding over the towering trees that covered the planet and continued to zero in on the source of the anomaly. He didn't need Arsix to know that he had 15 seconds before contact; besides the droid really wouldn't know.  
  
Then he began to slow down until the ship rested right above his target. "Arsix, hold this position. I'll be right back." And he opened the cockpit and jumped down through the trees.   
  
Whoever is draining the Force is apparently centering all energy unto him, Kyle thought, since the Force glowed even stronger at ground zero. Using that side-effect to his advantage, he heightened his own awareness and used it to navigate and steer himself through leaves and branches on the way down. And there, resting at the edge of his vision was the cloaked enigma who knelt right in front of the departed Master Yoda's house. Without thinking twice, Kyle reached for his lightsaber.  
  
-v-  
  
An intruder, the stranger thought to himself. I have barely begun.  
  
Sensing the new arrival to be a Jedi, he reached for the golden, curved hilt hanging from his belt. "This would be a worthy trial run for you," he whispered and it replied with a hiss. On one end, a serpent's head glared to life, its red eyes blinked and its slender tongue swaggered in the wind. On the other end, an empty cylindrical chamber vibrated with a low hum and filled itself with an acidic green energy blade that extended for a full meter, but figured itself into a curve two thirds its way from the blade's edge. The stranger smiled; the Jedi have never seen a weapon as beautiful as this.  
  
And then he looked up and saw the Jedi close in on him, his lightsaber igniting to life with a snap-hiss, and its shimmering, blue blade resonated into the Dagoban night. He greeted the Jedi with a back step and a wide, downward crescent slash. Their blades crashed into each other and sizzled the air with a clash that sounded like thunder.  
  
-vi-  
  
Lightyears away, in the Jedi Council chambers at Mon Calamari, Luke Skywalker stood up again in a sudden resurgence of comfort. The initial breach of the Force in Dagobah reverberated into tremendous pain for him but fortunately for the Skywalkers, Kyle's interference put Luke's agony to a pause. Hopefully, they prayed, even to an end.  
  
Mara came in close to hug him. "I almost thought Kyle wouldn't make it," she cried into her husband's ear.  
  
"Kyle is resilient. I have no doubts of him." Then he struggled with a thought. A solitary pulse in the Force brought him an image of Kyle's struggle in Dagobah, and a glimpse of their mysterious opponent. "But now, I must help him."  
  
"No, you're too weak. Send Jaina. Or even Jacen. They can help Kyle with whatever it is."  
  
"This is something I must do."  
  
"But you'll never make it on time. Dagobah is on the other side of the galaxy!" Mara pleaded.  
  
"I think Kyle has already ran out of time."  
  
-vii-  
  
The exchange of strikes, swings and parries could go on forever as the Force continued to relentlessly surge around the duelists. Kyle needed to pull off something smart and drastic to draw the battle to his favor; their moves were becoming too static and predictable to each other, even with the unique and sinister lightsaber his opponent seemed to brandish and take pride in.  
  
Whatever energy the stranger had left to siphon, Kyle took advantage of the extraordinarily high concentration of Force still swirling around them. He closed his eyes and paced his opponent by moving side to side in a circular sidestep; his quarry did the same. Then drawing speed from the Force he raised his saber over his head and lunged forward, driving the blade down only to fake it, as he spun around and weaved to his right instead, catching his opponent off guard and delivering a hard horizontal slash upon coming out of the spin.  
  
Though the stranger was at first startled by the Jedi's innovation, he sensed it soon enough in the Force to spin around himself and deflect the blow with a horizontal arc of his own. Then he braced himself for an onslaught of high and low combinations from the Jedi whilst looking for an opening in his barrage. After allowing his opponent's confidence to grow, he arched his leg back to avoid a low slash that he telegraphed, and pivoted and hopped on his other leg to deliver a powerful aerial backhand slash towards the Jedi's head. The Jedi ducked, and he responded with a back flip that threw his backwards as he drew on the Force to hurl his lightsaber at the Jedi. It spun quickly and violently, like the rotors of a Nubian hele-freighter, venting off green flame as it spiraled and zipped towards the Jedi.  
  
Kyle recognized the green flame. It was a favorite lightside weapon -- made famous by Jacen Solo -- to the equivalent of the lethal blue lightning utilized by the darkside. But unlike that, this was only meant to paralyze and blister the senses, leaving the inflicted to a Jedi's mercy. But Kyle didn't want to take chances with this one so he calculated his options as he used to Force to abruptly back step out of harm's way, only for him to be untimely halted by a tree. Backed into a corner, just like many times before, there is only one-thing Kyle Katarn would really do.  
  
Unlike most who avowed to strict light and dark dichotomies in Force techniques, his was a more practical philosophy: light or dark is not in the type of weapon, but how you use it. And without further thought, he channeled the Force into his palms and generated his own blue lightning. As the stranger's flaring lightsaber continued to spiral towards him, he rolled the lightning into a ball and hurled it at the blazing green blade with an additional jolt of Force push to increase its impact velocity. And the ensuing impact resulted in an explosion of green and blue light that melded into a flash of brilliant white. His counterattack worked into sending his opponent's blade flinging through the air even though the flash blindsided him for quite a while. But even as he struggled to regain his composure, he could already feel his opponent drift through the haze, his eyes seething with rage and his saber drawn sharply above his head.  
  
-viii-  
  
As she calibrated the Millenium Falcon's hyperdrive for the final jump to Kessel in an abandoned hangar in Naboo, Jaina Solo felt the Force shudder in fear for the first time. Apparently, her twin brother Jacen, jumping to his feet from a sleep in the Falcon's parlor, had felt it too. It shuddered once more.  
  
"It's beginning," Jacen whispered deliberately to himself but it fell within his sister's range.  
  
"What is, Jace?"  
  
"The revolution." He paused and wondered where those words came from. "We have to inform Uncle Luke."  
  
"I think he already knows," bellowed Han from the cockpit of the Falcon, apparently listening. Their father never payed any attention to Force talk, Jaina thought. Could he, as Force-blind as he is, have felt it too? "We're receiving a transmission from Mon Calamari. You two better make it quick." And the two raced to hear Luke's opening words.  
  
"Jacen. Jaina. Listen carefully for I am afraid we don't have enough time." Their Uncle Luke was being stern, brief. That had never been a good sign. "Kyle Katarn has engaged a mysterious fighter in Dagobah. He is skilled in the Jedi arts and armed with an exceptional and lethal knowledge of the Force."  
  
"Would this conflict explain the disturbances we have been feeling?" Jacen asked in a flash of insight.  
  
Luke took a second and a half to reply. "This battle may have repercussions in the Force that we may not yet foresee. I need the two of you to go to Dagobah and assist Master Katarn."  
  
Jaina grinned. "And even the odds?"  
  
"No, kid." Han interjected. "This is a rescue mission." And grinned. "Isn't that right, Luke?"  
  
"That's right, Han." And Luke was amused. "Thanks for spelling it out for me, old friend."  
  
"Don't mention it. It's just that for the first time, it's like I can see right through you." Suddenly with that, Han felt the whirl of trepidation, wonderment and excitement in his kids, as well as the duality of concern and gratitude in Luke. Across the cosmos in transit between the core worlds was Leia, who he could see as clear as day. She was missing him and longed for her children so much. And finally in a wide clearing in his mind, he saw Chewbacca howling at him as Anakin rode on the wookie's furry shoulder. They were laughing and happy, and proud. "I love you dad!" He could almost hear Anakin say as his image slipped away and Jacen placed a hand on Han's shoulder to stir him into consciousness.  
  
"Dad?"  
  
"Was I? Han felt weird. "I wasn't?" Good weird.  
  
"You were, dad. You were," Jaina said grinning and proud.  
  
But Jacen wasn't; he immediately turned his attention to the comm-unit. "Uncle Luke, did you feel that too? Dad just..."  
  
Luke caught the words that trailed Jacen's thoughts. "Yes, I did. And it's not just him." It's everyone, Luke thought to himself. "You must go to the aid of Master Katarn immediately."  
  
Jacen concurred. The force was strong with Han Solo. The first time in over 50 years.  
  
-ix-  
  
Kyle remembered a story that Luke would often tell his students in the Academy. In his final encounter with Darth Vader in the second Death Star, Luke avoided both defeat and submission into the darkside by hiding and delaying the battle as long as he could. At that time, he tuned himself to the Force in order to find the strength necessary to defeat Vader, but it was also at that moment when he was most vulnerable. Attuned strongly to the Force himself, Vader invaded his thoughts and tempted him that if he were not to fall, his twin sister would. With his feelings played and thoughts betrayed, Luke lashed out on his own father in a frenzy that took him to the fringes of the darkside. With that story, Luke, and other masters who relayed the tale, would advise their students that while the Force is a refuge and a source of strength, it is also a window into one's heart and soul. It is from there that one derives the necessary wisdom to defeat his opponent. While Kyle hardly ever relayed the story himself, he was a firm though reluctant believer in its lesson. Though more often than not, he would escape and mask himself so as not to hide and rejuvenate, but rather to study and analyze his opponent. Often times, he frightens himself with the idea that while he may be one of the good guys, he would actually rather think like Darth Vader sometimes.  
  
And now is probably the best time to do so. Still half-blinded, Kyle was perched snugly on a graying but sturdy log about a dozen feet above ground after evading his opponent who moved confidently and methodically through the explosion's haze. He enveloped himself in a blanket of suggestion that rendered him virtually invisible to his stalker; though with his opponent's apparent mastery of the Force, he wasn't really sure of how long that tactic would last. Still, he maintained his calm and watched intently as his hunter surveyed in and around the tiny peninsula in which they dueled, still fully cloaked and with a lightsaber that shone in a sickly green hue and vibrated with a deep, crackling buzz-hum. Kyle slowly reached out to probe his opponent. And it stung.  
  
His hold on the Force slipped as he fell from the tree and landed on the ground with a crushing thud, inches away from the boots of his opponent. He screamed in excruciating pain as a feedback of discordant images and sounds flooded his head as he attempted to decipher his mysterious assailant. Planets. Starships. Ion cannons. Explosions. The Jedi temple in ruin. An army of New Republic troopers adorned in elegant black armor. A clash of lightsabers. More explosions. At the edge of surrendering to the pain caused by a brain struggling to keep up, he conjured one image: of him meditating in a hidden grove in Kashyyk while longtime friend, accomplice and lover Jane Ors caressed him from behind. And just then the chaos, as if on cue, slowly fell into place. The pieces of mental stimuli bridged each other to form a vision that Katarn struggled to make sense out of, but at least bade him some semblance of peace. But when the vision finally settled and cleared, it still denied him a complete and purposeful revelation: uncatalogued planets, unexplored starsystems and untracked alien species composed the backdrop of a war tainted by the thundering of ion cannons, the weaving of lasers in an interstellar dogfight and the screaming of footsoldiers and infantry amidst the buzzing and clashing of lightsabers. Then there was a flash of brilliant white light that lay death and inexistence to every single being -- living and droid -- that waged war; and somewhere, in some corner of the galaxy, a single man stood with a lightsaber raised in triumph, with the Force -- and what appeared to be all of it -- enveloping him, giving him the radiance of a deity, the one true Source, the Creator of all. And in a final moment of lucidity, Kyle peered into the man's eyes and stared into them; sharp, round, brilliant and gray. Kyle Katarn froze in fear at the heels of his mysterious attacker who now seemed to him to be everything but.  
  
The acid green saber drew back into its source and the serpent head that hissed intermittently fell silent. The stranger pulled back on his hood to reveal a face, fair, firm and muscular, and outcropped by dark green hair that eclipsed the eyes and reached further into his cloak. He knelt down to extend and grabbed the fallen Katarn by his neck. He stood slowly and raised the Jedi above his head as one would in a ceremonial toast.  
  
"To die by my hand now is not your destiny, Kyle Katarn," he enunciated slowly and purposefully. His was a raspy voice that spoke of wisdom and age. "I need you to deliver a message to the rest of your friends."  
  
Kyle squinted his eyes and gazed into those of the man who held him at his mercy.  
  
"The Jedi have served their purpose," he began. "We have no need for them anymore save for the son of Skywalker."  
  
Ben, Katarn thought. "You're not touching him," he said through the chokehold.  
  
"Of course not, Jedi. When the time is right, he will come to me." And with that, he threw Katarn with a jolt of Force that ran through the extended choking arm. "The will of the Force will not be denied.  
  
Just then, the engines of a Correllian-class freighter whirred overhead, its cargo ramp sliding open as it continued its descent. Out from the hold of the Millennium Falcon came out two Jedi with lightsabers ablaze.  
  
"Drop!" Jacen demanded of the cloaked stranger as Jaina cushioned Kyle's fall with a quick shove of the Force.  
  
"Our time for battle has yet to come, Jacen Solo," answered the stranger as a beam of light encapsulated him and reduced him to mere photon particles that evanesced into the beam. "You are not to die yet." The beam shot straight up into the heavens and the stranger was gone without a blink of an eye.  
  
"What was that all about?" Asked Jaina as she helped Kyle up to his feet.  
  
Silence was the only reply Kyle could afford. He was beaten, not quite so physically, but the vision left an afterglow that would not recede. He stood in silence and reached for the Force with his fingers. Focused on the here and now, there was one thing he had left to do; he had a promise to fulfill. "Whoever that guy was destabilized a tremendous amount of Force energy. And I sort of promised Luke..." He looked at the twins and smiled. "You two mind?" They smiled in return.  
  
Together, the three meditated and stirred the Force back into its roots in the Dagoban soil, in the plants that rooted in that soil, and in the animals that fed on those plants. The three Jedi, one master and two knights, worked as one to return the system's delicate balance and in due time, the damage caused by the stranger's interference ceased, though a few creatures were unlucky and remained unsalvaged in the living Force. Still, it was the best they could have done, and more than what most Jedi could have been expected to do. Tragedies as catastrophic and full as those in Tatooine and Hoth have been avoided. Dagobah was spared and that brought some comfort into the heart of Kyle Katarn. But whatever respite life would grant him now would only be temporary, for if the vision that stalked him had any truth in it, the future will be very grim indeed.  
  
-x-  
  
Kyle conceded that the cramped cockpit of an X-wing had one redeeming quality: it gave him the solitude he sought for his trip back to Mon Calamari. In meditative silence, he began to pin down the words he would relay to Master Skywalker. Is it even his place to tell the Jedi Master of his vision of Ben? Or had the stranger been a ruse or a machination of some other hidden dark force that conspires against the Jedi? Who was that stranger to begin with? At this time, Kyle could not afford mere speculations; with a crisis looming in the horizon, he needed facts.  
  
Luke had already deployed most of the Jedi to reach out to the surging population of Force adepts that began ballooning around the time of his duel in Dagobah, Jacen disclosed while Kyle rested up in the Millennium Falcon and prepared to board his X-wing. A revolution was coming, the young Jedi warned, and for once Kyle actually felt like he was making sense. That bothered him even more.  
  
Reporting back to Luke was his priority now as he prompted Arsix to plot the course of their next hyperspace jumps en route to the Jedi Council chambers in Mon Calamari. Then he would take it upon himself to uncover the identity and agenda of his mysterious attacker, and try as he may, avoid a future that spells ill for the Jedi, the New Republic and the entire galaxy. At least, that's how the vision came across to him. Kyle Katarn had always been a gambler and an infiltrator, and thus he is no stranger to odds and ambiguities. This is no different, he comforted himself, it just so happens that the stakes have been raised a bit. And he thought of the image of Ben Skywalker, fully grown and one with the Force, as he activated the hyperdrive and jumped to lightspeed.  
  
-epilogue-  
  
A shadow fell on a control panel and a hand rested inches above it, soliciting a beep from the identification scanner that verified the person's identity and granted him access into a dim star-shaped chamber delineated by bulk-heads and divided by a conference table that spanned most of the center. A gargantuan figure stood at one end and greeted the new entrant that took his place at the other.  
  
"I trust that you have been successful, Lord Serpenterus?" Asked the heavyset man who began to stride along the table, the dim lights casting a subdued glow that revealed parts of his golden agate armor.  
  
"Barely," Serpenterus began as he took of his cloak and rested it on a chair. "The Jedi have become resilient... innovative." He proceeded to unclinch his moss green armor -- still effulgent and unsullied despite his toils in Dagobah -- revealing his pale epidermis that laid host to an intricate design of serpent tatoos and a solitary scar that run from his lower right abdomen to his upper right chest. He walked towards the observation window to set his eyes and relax them on a view of a nearby starcluster. He brushed his hair aside and continued to speak. "I hearken back to simpler times... when there were Jedi and there were Sith. It made our task simpler." He paused. "Do you not miss those days, Lord Vulkan?"  
  
"Indeed." The giant smiled through his armor. "But unlike you, I have yet to face them in combat," he suggested in clear amusement.  
  
But Serpenterus took the snide comment aside and remembered the task he was set out to do. "Has HE said anything of me?"  
  
"He has heard that your mission to assimilate the Skywalker Force-line into yourself has fallen short of success." Vulkan rests a comforting hand on his comrade's shoulder. "But he is more interested with how capable the Jedi have become." Relieved somewhat, Serpenterus waited for what else his friend may have to add. "We are accelerating our plans for we cannot afford them to be more powerful than they already are."  
  
"So this means that the Seeds have been planted?"  
  
"Yes." Vulcan began to laugh maniacally. "And soon, we reap."  
  
Serpenterus glared whimsically at his friend, but his physiology has long been denied of the capacity to laugh. Instead, the galaxy fell into an obscene silence and the only sound he could hear was his that of his heart that beat wildly not only with excitement, but also with the rising anticipation that soon, things will finally be as they should be. 


End file.
